


The Setup

by TheQueenInTheNorth



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Teachers, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-08-28 16:02:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16726527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueenInTheNorth/pseuds/TheQueenInTheNorth
Summary: After working together in STEM club for some time, Robbie and Trip take on a new project: Getting their teachers together - through any means necessary.





	The Setup

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blacksatinpointeshoes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blacksatinpointeshoes/gifts).



Robbie sighed heavily, dropping his head onto his arms atop his desk. School was exhausting enough when you also worked to keep yourself and your brother afloat – adding in STEM club was kind of a nightmare. But Gabe kept insisting it would look good on college applications, and he didn’t have the heart to tell his little brother that college was a pipedream for someone like him.

“You good, Reyes?” The question was accompanied by a light nudge against his arm, and when he looked up, his partner on the current project had sat down beside him.

Okay, so maybe STEM club wasn’t all bad. Not when Antoine Triplett gave him that smile.

“Yeah, just tired.” He stifled a yawn. “And Miss Smith is drowning us in Math homework. You’d think she’d give her own STEM club members a break, but no.”

Trip’s expression was sympathetic.“At least she doesn’t play favourites. Remember Garrett?”

Robbie shuddered. The whole school had breathed a sigh of relief when they’d finally canned that guy.”Yeah, that’s true. And she’s less annoying than him.” He jerked his head towards the other teacher in charge of their STEM club who had just entered the room.

“He’s not that bad,”Trip said, unable to keep the grin completely off his face.“He just likes to hear himself talk. I’ve got him in English now and he’s actually quite interesting. Once he manages to get to the point, anyway.”

Robbie snorted.“Have you figured out if Kasius is his first or last name yet?”

It was one of those school-wide mysteries where it had gotten to the point of it being way too embarrassing to ask, ending with most students firmly avoiding addressing him by name at all.

“Don’t laugh,”Trip started,”but I think it might be both?”

Robbie did laugh, of course.

“More working, less laughing,”Sinara Smith snapped, and then gave an irritated look to her colleague, who was holding out a Starbucks cup to her. She took it without saying anything.

“She needs to get laid,”Robbie muttered to Trip, pulling the robotic arm they were working on closer to them.“Like, badly needs to. Might improve her mood.”

“That’s gross, Reyes.” Trip’s tone was rather amused, though.“But actually, Kasius could do with a date, too. Maybe if he’d had anything else to do he wouldn’t set us 10-page essays on the regular. Not everyone can go on and on like that. Guess we should set them up.” He held out his hand to Robbie.“Can I have that screwdriver?”

He looked up when Robbie didn’t hand it over, instead finding him thoughtfully looking over to where their teachers were squabbling over how best to fix Fitzsimmons’ problem while the students in question looked distinctly uncomfortable.

“I was kidding,”Trip said.“Reyes, seriously! It was a joke.”

Robbie shrugged.“I know, but still… two birds, one stone. Less Math for me, less English for you.”

“They hate each other.”

“Did he or did he not just bring her a coffee?”

“Okay. So only she hates him, then.”

“Does she, though?”

“Dude. They’re literally having a fight right now.”

“Or are they flirting?”

“They’re not -” Trip broke off, frowning at the teachers. They were still bickering, but neither seemed actually angry.“Oh my god, are they?”

“I’m pretty sure they are,”Robbie said. And he wasn’t even lying. Smith barely even talked to most people. That had to mean something, right? He turned to Trip.“I bet if we just give them a little push...”

“Just a little one,”Trip agreed cautiously. The thought of fewer essays was far too tempting.

* * *

“Miss, could you help me with this project?”Robbie asked, setting it down on her desk.

She gave it a quick once-over, then scowled at him.“This is biology. You should be asking Kasius about this.”

“Right,”Robbie said.“I just thought I’d get your input. Since Mr Kasius is always talking about how you’re the smartest person he knows, and -”

“I’m not changing your last grade for flattery,”she cut him off, raising an eyebrow.“A C is not the end of the world. And also, you might want to put a little more effort in, if that’s what you were going for.”

“I wasn’t,”he started, and then decided there was no point in trying.“I’ll ask Mr Kasius, then.” He only hesitated for a second before asking,“You wouldn’t happen to know where I could find him?”

“Try the staffroom?” She rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to the papers on her desk.“Goodbye, Robbie.”

“That was so embarrassing,”Trip whispered as Robbie joined him in the corridor.

He was right, of course, but Robbie didn’t want to admit that. Instead, he scowled.“I don’t hear you having any better ideas.”

* * *

“I still don’t get how that’s supposed to work,”Robbie said, frowning at the Starbucks cup and blueberry muffin on Sinara’s desk.

“It’s really simple.” Trip rolled his eyes. “Look, he always brings her coffee to STEM club, so this is a sweet gesture without making it enough of a thing that she’ll bring it up. A little push in the right direction, just like we said.”

It was a much better idea than his own, Robbie had to admit. Well, he didn’t have to admit it out loud, though.“And how do you know you got her order right?”

“Described Kasius to the barista,”replied Trip.“He always orders the same thing. One Salted Caramel Brownie Hot Chocolate and one Flat White. Which one do you think is hers?”

“Yeah, fair enough.”

“Well, I gotta get to class. Let me know how it goes.”

“Will do,”Robbie promised and settled down at his desk.

Sinara Smith showed up not much later, eyeing the cup on her desk with an amount of suspicion most people reserved for shady cars driving by at walking speed.“Who put that there?”

“Was here when I got in,”Robbie said with a shrug.“Did run into Kasius on my way here, though.”

Then he busied himself with rooting around in his bag for his homework, watching her out of the corner of his eye.

She sniffed the cup and pulled a face.“Ew. Coffee.”

Robbie froze, then went for his phone. This was worth the risk of getting caught and having his phone confiscated.  _ Trip, you’re never going to fucking believe this! _

* * *

“How is this supposed to get them together?”Trip asked as he watched Robbie detaching the doorknob on the inside of the supply closet.

“We just make sure they have to get supplies at the same time, and the rest will sort itself out,”Robbie claimed.“Cramped spaces are pretty much an igniter for sexual tension.”

“Once again, gross.” Trip was leaning against one of the shelves, amused smile on his face.“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“Yeah, you can only open this from the outside now. I messed it up enough that you can’t get the knob back on. Here, I’ll show you.”

As the door clicked shut, what he had just done clicked into place in Robbie’s brain.“Oh fuck.”

“Oh fuck indeed,”Trip said. He didn’t sound particularly upset, really.“I’ll text Hunter to come let us out. He should still be on school grounds. Soccer practice.”

“That’s good,”Robbie replied lamely.

Damn, he hadn’t been wrong about this thing being a cramped space. He could feel the body heat radiating off of Trip.

“Might be a while.” Trip sat down, his back against one shelf, his feet touching the other.“Better get comfortable, Reyes.”

Robbie sat down, too, his arm unavoidably pressed against Trip’s.“This may not have been my best idea.”

“You don’t say,”Trip said with a chuckle that made Robbie’s cheeks feel ridiculously warm.

“Oh, shut up.” It really lacked bite, but he couldn’t bring himself to care, not when Trip laughed again.

And definitely not when he leaned against him a little more. Part of him really hoped soccer practice would run long.

* * *

“Did you hear about Smith and Kasius getting locked in the supply closet?”Daisy asked, dropping her tray down on the table.

“Nope,”Robbie said, barely glancing up from his lunch.“How did that happen?”

“The doorknob had come off or something.” Daisy shrugged.“Doesn’t really matter, though. That’s not the interesting part.”

“Then what is?” Now Robbie couldn’t stop himself from showing interest. Had they finally succeeded?

Daisy took one of his fries.“Apparently, she kicked down the door. Like, completely wrecked the thing. Raina from my history class says she used to be in the army, apparently. But Hunter says she’s a trained assassin. I think Hunter’s onto something, ‘cause that woman is scary.”

“You’re a weirdo,”Robbie said, and tried not to think about how he’d locked a trained assassin in a supply closet.

Or about how he was still not done messing with her life.

* * *

“Oh my god, what did you do with this room?”

Sinara stared at them as if they had blown up the whole school, not put up a few decorations.

“Just spreading a little Christmas cheer, Miss,”Trip said casually.

She didn’t seem to particularly feel the Christmas spirit.“It looks like an elf puked on the walls.”

“Oh, it’s not that bad,”Kasius said mildly, looking around the room.“Though red and gold are quite uninspired. A little creativity does no harm, surely.”

Robbie waited for them to move over to their usual spot by the desk, Kasius still going on about colour schemes as Sinara rolled her eyes. Then he spoke up.“Miss?”

Her attention was easier to get than Kasius’ when he was off on a tangent. She looked at him expectantly.

“You two are under mistletoe,”Robbie said, rather unnecessarily pointing up at the ceiling at the offending decoration the teachers were already staring at.

“So?”Sinara challenged, with a glare that made half the STEM club shrink further into their seats even though they had nothing to do with the whole thing.

Robbie was vaguely regretting this idea now but soldiered on.“So people under mistletoe are supposed to kiss.”

“This is a school and a professional environment. That’s highly inappropriate.” She looked to Kasius for support, but he was still looking up at the mistletoe.“Did you put tinsel on that? That looks hideous.”

Sinara cleared her throat pointedly, and Kasius brought his attention back to Robbie.“Right, of course. As Miss Smith has said, you’d best refrain from such jokes.”

“I’m not joking,”Robbie said, just as Trip chimed in,“He’s right, though. You have to kiss if you’re under mistletoe. That’s the rule, school or not.”

Sinara was just opening her mouth to give what would no doubt be a scathing reply when Bobbi interrupted.“Cool, ‘cause you and Reyes are also under some mistletoe.”

They stared at her, then slowly upwards. Yes, there it was, right over their shared desk.

Robbie should’ve known something was up when Morse had so readily agreed to help them out with the decorations. He swallowed hard, looking at Trip uncertainly. He looked about as stunned as Robbie felt himself.

“Right, enough!”Sinara broke the tense moment.“We’re here for STEM, not this nonsense. And you’re all staying after to clean up this mess.”

* * *

The teachers hadn’t actually stayed to supervise them getting rid off all the decorations, just telling them to have the room back to its normal state by the next morning, so Trip and Robbie had told the others to leave, since they’d had nothing to do with the whole thing.

“So, that didn’t work either,”Trip said after a while of them working in silence.

Robbie shrugged.“Might have, if Morse hadn’t messed around.”

“About that,”Trip said, sounding nervous all of a sudden.“It’s kind of against the Christmas spirit, isn’t it? For no one to have kissed under the mistletoe?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Robbie turned around, flushing bright red as he found Trip a lot closer than he had expected.“So should we, like, fix that?”

“I think we should, yeah.”

Robbie leaned in until they were barely an inch apart, his heart in his throat. What if Trip had only been joking?

He was about to pull away and laugh the whole thing off when Trip closed the gap between them.

His lips were soft, and warm, and perfect - and so was his smile when he pulled away again.“I also think we should go out sometime.”

“I’d like that,”Robbie said, not even trying to stop grinning like a fool.

* * *

“Why am I doing this again?”Daisy asked, not stopping her typing.

“Cause Robbie’s too damn stubborn to give up,”Trip said fondly.

Robbie shot him a glare for the sake of form.“Because this just has to work." He leaned in to look over her shoulder. Not that he had the slightest clue what she was doing. "Also, I’m setting you up with Piper, since you’re too useless to ask her yourself.”

They both worked at the same mechanic after school, and Daisy sometimes dropped by to pretend not to be swooning over the other girl. If either of them asked Robbie about the other ‘subtly’ one more time, he was going to start screaming, so this worked in his favour, anyway.

“Oh, right, that’s why,”Daisy said. She gave him a cheeky grin.“I’m in his account now. How do you even know Kasius was the one to book the rooms?”.

“He’s a control freak, duh,”Robbie replied.“Just send them an e-mail to change the rooms to a double room and then block them so they can’t mail him about it.”

“Done.” Daisy leaned back, looking from Robbie to Trip back to her laptop.“If this blows up in our faces, you guys ruined the STEM trip big time.”

* * *

The rain was pattering against the window, a lovely sound so long as you didn’t have to go outside. Luckily, Sinara had no reason or intention to leave the flat today.

“Scoot over,”Kasius said, holding out a cup to her. She took it and made some room on the sofa, just enough that he could sit down. Then she threw her legs across his lap and leaned against him, a teasing smile on her face.“No cookies?”

“You already ate them all,”he reminded her, pressing a kiss to her forehead.“But I put marshmallows on your hot chocolate.”

She stole one of his marshmallows instead, giving a longsuffering sigh.“I suppose these will do, since there are no more cookies.”

“Well, how was I to know you’d eat them all in one sitting?”

“It’s been three years, Kas. You should know by now, really.”

“I should,”he conceded.“Want me to go bake more?”

“No, you’re too comfy.” She snuggled a little closer.“Oh, by the way, the hotel called. They were very confused about why you tried to change our double room to a double room.”

Kasius laughed.“Those kids don’t give up easy, huh?”

“If they put half as much effort into STEM club, we might win regionals for once,”Sinara muttered.


End file.
